Welcome

Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and
others concerned about HIV/AIDS. Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the
conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning: Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive
and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a
username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own
physician.

All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators
of these forums. Click here for “Am I Infected?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please
provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are
true and correct to their knowledge.

Finished Reading This? You can collapse this or any other box on this page by clicking the
symbol in each box.

Welcome to Am I Infected

Welcome to the "Am I Infected?" POZ forum.

New members -- those who have posted three or fewer messages -- are permitted to post questions and responses, free of charge (make them count!). Ongoing participation in the "Am I Infected?" forum -- posting more than three questions or responses -- requires a paid subscription.

A seven-day subscription is $9.99, a 30-day subscription is $14.99 and a 90-day subscription is $24.99.

Anyone who needs to post more than three messages in the "Am I Infected?" forum -- including past, present and future POZ Forums members -- will need to subscribe, with secure payments made via PayPal.

There will be no charge to continue reading threads in the "Am I Infected?" forum, nor will there be a charge for participating in any of the Main Forums; Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits; and Off Topic Forums. Similarly, all POZ pages, including our "HIV Transmission and Risks" and "Am I Infected? (A Guide to Testing for HIV)" basics, will remain accessible to all.

NOTE: HIV testing questions will still need to be posted in the "Am I Infected?" forum; attempts to post HIV symptoms or testing questions in any other forums will be considered violations of our rules of membership and subject to time-outs and permanent bans.

To learn how to upgrade your Forums account to participate beyond three posts in the "Am I Infected?" Forum, please click here.

Thank you for your understanding and future support of the best online support service for people living with, affected by and at risk for HIV.

I'm a 30 year old male, relatively healthy, 10 sex partners total, just recently got out of a long term relationship. I recently had a bout Guillain Barre syndrome and the timing has me worried the trigger could be HIV infection. Here are the facts/timeline

May 5 - sex with a woman I did not know well. Used a condom but I was drunk and it came off inside her.

May 18 - started having neurological problems (weakness, muscle spasms, difficulty swallowing). This actually began about a week prior but only became very noticeable around the 18th. Saw my doctor (and several others). Had several neuro. tests over the coming weeks, all clear.

June 7 - Finally saw a neurologist who thinks my neurological problems were a mild case of Guillain Barre. I won't go into too much detail about GB itself but it usually has a viral cause.

June 22 - after weeks of gradually getting better from GB (still weak/tired but otherwise functional), I started to feel sick. Sore throat and swollen neck lymph nodes, headache, small white-ish cankers in my mouth, and some diarrhea.

I've called my doctor and asked for an HIV test. He thinks I'm worrying too much (but then he thought that about my GB as well). I will go to the lab at the three month mark.

My questions...

Could the timeline and symptoms I mention suggest HIV infection? Maybe it wasn't what made me ill around May 8, or even what triggered GB, but I'm more worried about what I'm feeling now.

Given that I've had these symptoms fairly quickly, is a three month wait entirely necessary? What if I only waited, say, 2.5 months? That sounds silly but I really want to address this ASAP.

Having the condom roll off while inside her was technically a risk. But only just. Until that happened you were protected. It was single and very brief possible exposure. HIV is significantly harder to transmit from female to male than the other way around.

Taking all of that into consideration I expect you will test negative. Test at 3 months and pick up your negative result.

Still, my concerns are with the symptoms themselves, rather than the fact that I was unprotected with a stranger. Any thoughts re: the symptoms, or is it all too vague? Have you ever heard of HIV-related Guillain Barre?

Did she (or you) have to dig the condom out of her? Because if not, then you're likely worrying over nothing where hiv is concerned. Even if it came off sometime during and was pushed up inside her, you're still unlikely to end up positive following this one-off.

The vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by six weeks, with the average time to seroconversion being only 22 days. A six week (or more) negative is highly unlikely to change, but must be confirmed at the three month point.

You're past six weeks now, so if you test now and get a negative result (which I expect) that will be an excellent indication of your true hiv status.

If your doctor won't test you until three months, you can find a testing center near you by putting your zip code into poz.com's Health Services Directory.

I really don't see this as an hiv situation. GB can be caused by both viral and bacterial infections as well as a certain type of autoimmune disease and a certain type of cancer. So stop focusing on hiv.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Thanks very much for this. I had to dig it out of her at one point. There was definitely some unprotected contact. But I still find this reassuring. I will get tested soon, maybe in a week or so. That will be about 8 weeks.

It's weird, I had one set of symptoms at the three day mark or so which seemed to trigger the GB. Then I had to deal with the GB for just over a month. Then, about a week ago (6 week mark) I started to get another set of symptoms (swollen neck glands, extreme fatigue) that has me almost as worried as I was over GB.

I will try not to freak out too much until I get tested. Thanks again!

I'm not sure that you had what would even qualify as a very low level risk. For sure I expect you to test negative. And ARS symptoms do not come and go at different times. If they are going to appear at all they show up for a couple of weeks and then they are gone.

Whatever is going on with you has nothing to do with HIV and you should discuss those symptoms with your doctor.

I don't see this as an HIV situation and I expect you will test negative.

saw my doctor today. He didn't pay much mind to my current symptoms--aggravating, because the last time he did that I turned out to have Guillain Barre. He couldn't feel anything wrong with my lymphs or spleen (again, not reassuring given all the symptoms I've had in the past week or so).

Anyway, he gave me a lab req. for an HIV test but nothing else. So, I may wait another two weeks or so before going in for testing. I'll try and keep my head on my shoulders til then.

sorry to take up more of everyone's time, but these symptoms won't go away. It's been a little over a week now. Tender neck, armpits, groin, nausea, some diarrhea, White-ish canker in my mouth, sore muscles, sore joints. The malaise keeps getting worse and I know it's not just stress. Any thoughts as to what else this could be? Any other viruses that produce these symptoms?

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

just got blood tested. It's the eight week mark, hopefully that's close enough for accuracy. The lab tech said it would take two weeks. This is going to be a long two weeks... living with these flu-like symptoms and all.

Thanks very much for your patience and insight. All that's keeping me somewhat composed right now is the chance that this may not be HIV... though my list of symptoms keeps growing... new: dry mouth, nose, and eyes, eyes and skin are highly sensitive to sunlight... and, to top it off, I've been shedding some skin from the tip of my penis (I'm uncircumsized).

I have about 12 days to wait for my test results... I know there are some common sense factors saying I shouldn't stress too much, but I know my body and there's definitely something wrong, between the GB, and everything else.

I can't promise I won't keep going on like this. I just felt like talking to someone, and right now, it seems this forum is all I've got.

I've read on this forum that ARS symptoms won't last longer than two weeks. I've read other places on the web that they may last up to four weeks. Can someone comment on this? Are there any known instances of ARS lasting between two and four weeks?

Doctor called today. Test came back negative. This was a blood test done at 7.5 weeks, during flu-like symptoms and well after neurological symptoms. So, I'm thinking I should be in the clear... I will do a follow up at 13 weeks just to be sure.

I still have something going on (gotta be viral) but I'm close to taking HIV off the list. Thanks everyone for your help and guidance.